Class Suit Over Flushable Butt Wipes Lingers

BROOKLYN (CN) – Procter & Gamble, Costco and Kimberly-Clark cannot flush a pair of proposed class actions accusing them of selling commode-clogging, flushable wipes, a federal judge ruled today. Attorneys for the companies asked U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein to dismiss the complaints, or at least deny plaintiffs’ class action certification request. He denied both. “I’m not going down the class certification road,” he said, but gave attorneys 60 days to plead their cases on the issue. D. Joseph Kurtz filed his proposed federal class action against Kimberly-Clark and Costco in Brooklyn this past February. Anthony Belfiore named Procter & Gamble in the class action he filed in Nassau County Supreme Court in May. That case was removed to Brooklyn in July. “Because flushable wipes do not disintegrate immediately upon flushing, like toilet paper, they cause serious problems,” Kuntz said in his lawsuit. Instead, the wipes allegedly clogged toilets and pipes, and flooded people’s homes. “The class would not have purchased the flushable wipes if they knew that flushing [them] would cause the pipes to become clogged in sewer or septic systems,” the complaint states. Attorneys for the companies called the complaints “fundamentally flawed,” and urged the judge to deny certification because it would encourage plaintiffs to lean on them as they continue to “try the cases until they get a win.”